Getting sorted...

Thursday, 5 January 2012 | Admin

Happy New Year everyone!Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year – Santa was good to us and we spent lots of quality time with family and friends (including champagne cocktails and silly games over New year....) But I have to say it's good to be back to normality again.As you know from LAST YEAR I'm not one for making New Years Resolutions. In saying that I managed to stick to at least one of mine from last year – I'll leave you to guess which one!But there is something about having time out that gives you space to stop doing and think about how things could be improved. You know, not big things, but little niggly things that take up unnecessary and ill-afforded space in your post-baby brain.For me there are two things bugging me: My constantly very full freezer and trying to keep my house tidy without feeling like I'm in Groundhog / shrieking Mummy mode all the time – no easy task with 4 kids running around.Emptying my freezerAs you know I batch cook, which is great as I always have a meal to hand. But I seem to cook more than we use so I literally have a freezer full of meals and no room to put any milk or bread or any of the things that I'd really like to have on hand. So my mission for January / February is to clear my freezer and only batch cook again when I've actually cleared what we've got.Kickstart the tidy habitI'm not a naturally tidy person. When you see my kitchen in the Cheeky Wipes demo clip what you can't see is the pile of crap that normally sits on the worktop which has been removed to the other end of the kitchen, out of sight. To be fair the worktops are pretty clear now as I have just re-sanded and oiled them before Christmas and I'm trying really hard to maintain it.I used to subscribe to flylady.net which is fantastic for lots of decluttering and tidying tips but you can end up with a full in-box. The top tips that I'm going to restart are:Exit Room - Check!As you walk out of any room, check around to see if there's anything you can take with you to whatever room you're going to. This really worked for me, so I'm going to restart this to try to keep on top of things.Clear HotspotsThere are a few hotspots in my house, you know, the areas that stuff gets dumped down when you come into the house or just tends to accumulate as it has no obvious 'home'. For us the hotspots are:- the porch- kitchen worktop- dining table- hall tableThe flylady suggests you clear your hotspots one at a time and then make an effort to keep them clear by not dumping stuff on them or clearing them away routinely morning and evening.The 27 fling boogieDecluttering is the best way to get a tidy house. This quick and easy decluttering tool is fun too and the kids can get involved. Just grab a bin bag and run around the house like madmen until you find 27 things that can be thrown out / recycled. Even newspapers count, broken toys, random bits of tat that the kids have brought back into the house.15 minutes at a time is plentyIf you're like me there are certain areas in your house that you just don't see. My utility room seems to get really untidy quite quickly and I just ignore it – that is, until it reaches a level when it finally penetrates the fug. The good thing is that 15 minutes will clear it easily. Set a timer if you have one (on your phone!) and just go for it. Stop when the 15 minutes are done and then look back and see what you've done. This is a great technique for going through your wardrobe / drawers etc.We're going to start this weekend with a bit of a toy audit, need to change the dynamic in the play room and bring some bigger toys out of storage for baby Aerin....